We All Fall Down

Week 5
"One With Copper"

This is what do you do with a pile of copper plates on a rainy day that keep falling down! As soon as I picked up my camera everything would crash.












Why am I doing this?
Because I am alive! "One With Copper" is like an adventure and this blog is like a trip diary. I know that I will end up at the show, but I need to hike through the forest and mountains before I can get there.

I think I have settled on the etching medium that I am going to use. I love painting on my plates and mixing textures with my drawings. I will use acrylic soft and hard-ground using water based Graphic Chemical Inks. I play with W/S block print black 1659C, W/S block print crimson red 1661C and also permanent peacock blue 1669 straight from the can. All three work a little differently. If you are buying something for the studio to try out, I recommend starting with black 1659C. It is the easiest to work with and gives the best wash effect.

I am now in search of textures I can use for the soft-ground and ideas. As of today I have prepared 34 plates.

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Keeping Busy in the Studio

"Love Thy Bum" is ready for its seventh color.

This is a copper plate that I painted on with acrylic stop out and watered down India ink. I rolled Graphic Chemical W/S block print ink black 1659C. I left enough copper showing to get an aquatint.
This is the etched plate. It just came out of the Edinburgh solution a short while ago.
I am going to call this "Harvest Moon".

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This image "Washed Up On Shore" should have been an aluminum plate rather then the copper plate. Just because I think the way I am working the plate would be more immediate/faster on aluminum. Also, somehow it is a shame to make a beautiful copper plate look ugly. But, I do like what is happening with the image when printed.

This is the last proof, I have reworked the areas noted.

The dehydrated future floor polish takes a few days to dry.


I have made a decision on how I want to print the background for the woodcut "Flying High". Maybe it will be in next weeks blog pictures.

Happy Printing Everyone